One thing I don\u2019t understand at all \u2013 in accounts of early and mid-20th century America you see life insurance policies treated how homeownership-by-mortgage is now: as an investment you gradually build equity in and can later partially or fully \u201ccash out\u201d as a nest egg.
And I kinda get it - an active policy is like a bond of unknown (but actuarially predictable) maturity and negative coupon rate (the premiums), I can see why that would be a negotiable instrument and tax/regulatory policy might\u2019ve favored that vehicle over other types of savings
But when doomed-seeming AIDS patients were pre-selling their insurance payouts in the 80s it was something distinct, \u201cviaticals\u201d, so how did the prior system work?
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